Comforting a New Friend
by justareader13
Summary: Esther can't handle what happened and Rex isn't good at comforting so Jack takes over and finally lets the similarities between Esther and Toshiko sink in.


**I love Esther/Jack friendship and I was disappointed I didn't see any last night so I decided if I wanted some, better create something so here it is**

The ride home was a quiet one, tears fell down Esther's face occasionally and Rex not one who was overly empathetic was at a loss of what to do, he didn't want to admit he wished Jack or Gwen were here, you'd think that even though he'd known Esther way longer that he would be better at comforting her but sadly that notion was not fact. When he'd pulled up to their motel he hopped out of tense atmosphere of the car and walked to the room, Esther silently followed her arms crossed across her chest as if she was holding her self together as soon as he opened the door, Jack's voice wafted through the room

"Hey guys that you? You'll never guess what Gwen just did." He says a big smile on his face, which instantly slips when he sees the status of the newest Torchwood recruits, he took a look at Rex's sweaty and bloody state and the seemingly catatonic Esther and knew something went horribly wrong

"What happened?"

"Vera's dead, I'm going to take a shower." Rex says as he passes, he's silently conveys to Jack to take care of Esther

"Esther? Honey?" He says as Rex closes the bathroom door

"I, I don't…" she says shaking her head as tears rushed to her eyes, she let out a pained sob that had Jack practically running, he immediately pulled her into a tight comforting hug as she broke down in sobs, he lifted and brought her to his room leaving the door cracked behind him, he sat with Esther on his lap he rocked back and forth, running his fingers through her hair and rubbing her back comfortingly until she calmed down

"Want to tell me what happened?" he said softly

"It's all my fault, Vera died, I should've been there to make sure she was okay, and then the guy who attacked her got to Rex him, and then we fought and I thought I killed him but I didn't and I wanted to is that what this job makes you, you want to kill people? I, I've never felt so, oh god." She stammered out

"Hey look at me, you did what you had to do. If you didn't protect yourself, you'd be dead by now or as dead as can be nowadays. You did what you had to or you'd have ended up like Vera did, and what would I do then?" she looked into his eyes sadly

"In fact I think it's kind of selfish, I mean what would I do without my two favorite girls? Gwen is in Wales, you'd be gone, would really have me suffer at the mercy of only having Rex around?" He joked, she laughed slightly

"Couldn't have that now could we?" she sighed tiredly laying her head on Jack's shoulder

"Life is hard nowadays Esther sweetie, its hard all around the only place where anyone can find any relief now is in our dreams."

"Even those are probably tainted now." They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes

"Come now, time to change and sleep." He helped her take off her jacket and shirt, swallowing his anger down at the bruises on her shoulders, side and back he got out a tank top and sweat pants giving it to her, he left the room letting her change. He sat thinking of Esther,

Esther had this complex, this 'it's all my fault' complex where no matter what the situation she somehow made it her fault in her head when it was anything but, Jack had noticed pretty quickly and that it only made it worse for her when others blamed her too, if he were being honest she reminded him of Toshiko just like Rex reminded him of Owen but that look in her eyes. Her innocence, slight naivety and genius were just like Tosh, but the haunted look in her eyes, like she'd seen the world ten times over and the weight of the horrors she'd seen was crushing her, the look all of the members of the old Torchwood team got after awhile of being a member, he got up and walked to his room watching Esther who had curled into the fetal position on the bed and was seemingly sleeping tears gathered in his eyes as he thought of all of them and what had become of them, Suzie went crazy, Tosh, Owen and Ianto were dead, Gwen and Rhys had to go into hiding just to make sure Anwen wasn't hurt because of their line of work add the 1999 team incident, Torchwood was designed to have the members killed one by one and Jack just knew it would eventually happen to Esther and Rex just like Tosh and Owen.

"Jack?"

"Yeah darling?"

"Will you hold me? Just hold me." She asks innocently, he smiles and walks over to the bed laying down and simultaneously scoping her in his arms and holding her close

"Everything's fine, I promise Essie, I promise everything will be fine." He says kissing her head and soon drifting off to sleep.

**Just a small interaction fic, hope you guys liked it R&R**


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